Submitted by: Submitted by dbaker1203
Views: 247
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Category: Philosophy and Psychology
Date Submitted: 07/19/2012 03:11 PM
lCapital punishment also known as "Death penalty," "Death sentence," and "Execution" is the execution of a convicted criminal by the state as punishment for crimes committed. There are several methods of execution, including: decapitation, the gas chamber, electrocution, hanging, lethal injection, the firing squad or other sorts of shooting. Today almost all European countries have abolished capital punishment. However, some states of America still retain it. The death penalty is the harshest form of punishment present in our world today where lethal injection is the most common formused. Is capital punishment morally wrong? Capital punishment is often the subject of controversy in some cultures. The Utilitarian view, a supporter of capital punishment, argues that it deters crime, and is an appropriate form of punishment for the crime of murder. On the other hand, opponents of capital punishment advocate that it violates human rights—the criminal's right to life. They also believe that it does not deter criminals more than life imprisonment and leads to executions of some who are wrongfully convicted . Moreover, they argue that life imprisonment could be an effective substitute. There are many different opinions on this issue.
Utilitarianism is an ethical theory stating that the moral worth of an action is solely determined by its contribution to overall utility. It is a consequentialist theory, where the emphasis is on consequences, not intentions. The classical utilitarianism theory of John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham agreed that actions are judged by the virtues of their consequences and also added that the pursuit and production of happiness should betaken into consideration. This theory can be summarized in three claims known as the consequentialist claim, the happiness claim and the objectivity claim. The first claim
states that actions are to be judged right or wrong solely by the virtue of their consequences. The happiness claim states that the only...